@ howard: I thought that arc was more about Elly complaining about not being able to play with John's new toy until he bought her off. And also both of them enabling and reinforcing each other's negative behavior: John's misogyny and Elly's insistence on blowing things out of proportion and focusing on the wrong problems.

At least FOOBAR ending here means poor Liz won't have to go through that "children are ungrateful brats and only get sick to cause their parents grief -- and not in the 'I care about my child so much that seeing them in agony makes me feel so helpless!' sense, either, but the 'Now I have to work HARDER, AAAUUGH!' sense" arc.